WRKY transcription factors regulate diverse biological processes in plants, including abiotic and biotic stress responses, and constitute one of the largest transcription factor families in higher plants. Although the past decade has seen significant progress towards identifying and functionally characterizing
WRKY
genes in diverse species, little is known about the WRKY family in sorghum (
Sorghum bicolor
(L.) moench). Here we report the comprehensive identification of 94 putative WRKY transcription factors (
Sb
WRKYs). The
Sb
WRKYs were divided into three groups (I, II, and III), with those in group II further classified into five subgroups (IIa–IIe), based on their conserved domains and zinc finger motif types. WRKYs from the model plant Arabidopsis (
Arabidopsis thaliana
) were used for the phylogenetic analysis of all
SbWRKY
genes. Motif analysis showed that all
Sb
WRKYs contained either one or two WRKY domains and that
Sb
WRKYs within the same group had similar motif compositions.
SbWRKY
genes were located on all 10 sorghum chromosomes, and some gene clusters and two tandem duplications were detected.
SbWRKY
gene structure analysis showed that they contained 0–7 introns, with most
SbWRKY
genes consisting of two introns and three exons. Gene ontology (GO) annotation functionally categorized SbWRKYs under cellular components, molecular functions and biological processes. A
cis
-element analysis showed that all
SbWRKYs
contain at least one stress response-related
cis
-element. We exploited publicly available microarray datasets to analyze the expression profiles of 78
SbWRKY
genes at different growth stages and in different tissues. The induction of
SbWRKYs
by different abiotic stresses hinted at their potential involvement in stress responses. qRT-PCR analysis revealed different expression patterns for
SbWRKYs
during drought stress. Functionally characterized
WRKY
genes in
Arabidopsis
and other species will provide clues for the functional characterization of putative orthologs in sorghum. Thus, the present study delivers a solid foundation for future functional studies of
SbWRKY
genes and their roles in the response to critical stresses such as drought.